Peer effects and social networks in education. (English) Zbl 1187.91163

Calvó-Armengol, Antoni; Patacchini, Eleonora; Zenou, Yves

Rev. Econ. Stud. 76, No. 4, 1239-1267 (2009).

Summary: We develop a model that shows that, at the Nash equilibrium, the outcome of each individual embedded in a network is proportional to his/her Katz-Bonacich centrality measure. This measure takes into account both direct and indirect friends of each individual, but puts less weight to his/her distant friends. We then bring the model to the data using a very detailed dataset of adolescent friendship networks. We show that, after controlling for observable individual characteristics and unobservable network specific factors, a standard deviation increase in the Katz-Bonacich centrality increases the pupil school performance by more than 7% of one standard deviation.

MSC:

91D30	Social networks; opinion dynamics
62P25	Applications of statistics to social sciences

Keywords:

outcome; social network; Katz-Bonacich centrality measure; direct friends; indirect friends; adolescent friendship networks; pupil school performance